The problem with Riot's model

Fflarn·Nov 21, 2015·5 votes·973 views

The premise that Riot is operating on is this: Faster games with a higher kill count equates to more exciting games. Now in theory, they are implying this both to playing the game and to watching the game, but their focus in this regard is pretty tangibly regarding watching esports. We all know how Riot and the casters love to promote the kill per minute goal as the mark of an exciting game.

Gentlemen and ladies, neither the length of the game nor the number of kills in it makes a good game, it is the quality of the contest. I will allow that not everyone who watches LoL will appreciate the beauty of a long, low kill game where the action was almost entirely in the rotation game, yet there is beauty and excitement there, an appreciation of the strategy of the game outside of flashy plays and high KDAs.

In this pre-season of rapid snowballs and sub 20 minute inhibitors, I believe Riot is missing the troubling factor that nearly all best of 5 matches in season 5, from regional playoffs up to the final, were 3-0 sweeps in which one team easily defeated the other. But making the game so much easier to snowball, you're only increasing the odds that your top billed matches will be dull one sided stomps for season 6. I guess the upside is that they will last less time?

And to be sure, the problems that Riot has pointed to with the games dragging on as teams get 'choked out' is their own fault, their ever increasing escalation of mobility and wave clear on champions and items has both made it more difficult to engage and siege towers. Morelleo used to talk about the mobility creep as a problem that needed to be addressed, but we don't see that kind of talk anymore, instead we get the map designed to assist whomever gets the first lead.

Perhaps more problematic for Riot is that their esports viewer base is, by and large, their player base. I'm a bang on average player, maybe even below average player. I don't care, I'm 40 and I have no aspiration or desire to become a high tier player, I just like to log on and have some fun playing the game. This pre-season, however, is simply not fun. I am so tired of playing against teams with 3-4 roles filled with ADC champions, or how certain champions with 1-2 items can wreck entire teams. Not to mention having all these fun items to build, but often games end with no more than 3 items having time to be built.

You know what a boring game to play and watch is? Heroes of the Storm. I tried watching the world championship they had, but only lasted a few games. Without gold, items, individual xp, the strategy in the game is so shallow that it is painfully dull. Yet in some ways it feels as if Riot wants to approach that style of play.

No, I'm not quitting LoL, no, I don't think Riot is going to put itself out of business. But I do feel like this season's changes have made the game significantly less fun to play, and I will not be surprised if the LCS is less fun to watch as well, despite having more kills and shorter game lengths.

And just in case anyone from Riot actually reads this, could you fix matchmaking please? Before the preseason patch I was paired with similar bracket folks. Now I'm paired with people two divisions above me.

4 Comments

Awkward CouchNov 23, 20151 votes

While I understand your concern, you have to remember this is the preseason. Right now nothing is set in stone. Riot Meddler has come out and said that he's going to let the players play the patch for a while before they revert some of the major changes. Look at Vigar, he got a re work and no one cared about him for over 6 months. Suddenly Incarnation played him and he was either pick/ban for the rest of season 5. Give players time to adjust to the new patch and the game will work itself out.

TL;DR you have a right to be concerned but its just preseason right now, just give it a chance.

FflarnNov 24, 20151 votes

I understand all that. I can offer more and better examples of a single champion that rose to prominence from obscurity; remember when Ezreal was universally considered the worst ADC in the game, then his Pulsefire skin came out and people started playing him again and suddenly he was the most contested ADC in the LCS?

However these are individual champions, fluctuation in which champions are 'best in role' at each position is a good thing for the LCS. More fluctuation would be better, but in general you tend to have 3 champions at each role who's kits are good enough to be the best in role for any game plan so that the majority of LCS matches are played with the same small pool of champions.

This is a change to the entire nature of the game. Case in point, in a recent game I was in the bot lane, it's the first few minutes of the game and we're trading some and growing our CS lead, typical bot life. Suddenly top dies, then a few minutes later both junglers show up in top lane, and both our top and jungler dies. Before the pre-season changes, this would certainly be concerning but not the end of the world.

With these changes, they take top tower, then rift herald, rotate mid and take tower, rotate bot and take tower, then take dragon. Our top laner is two levels below their top laner and can't risk leaving their tower, which leaves the enemy Tryndamere free to push to tower then invade top side jungle over and over, but in this case with the level difference he ends up just tower diving rumble and killing him again before he has equalizer. Our jungler, while not as far behind as our top laner, is getting quickly starved out with their top and jungle constantly in our jungle, which makes all the other lanes hang back to be safe and thus the entire team is bleeding CS. We lose our mid inhib around 15 minutes. At this point everyone on my team has at most two items and it's just not enough to break through their tank line- the game is essentially over.

Now, it used to happen from time to time that your team would just get crushed like this, you put the game behind you and move on. In the pre-season however, this is much more of the norm than the exception. Close fought games are rarer, and if there is a come back from a team behind in my games, it usually involves a DC on the winning team. Towers die way too easily in this patch, they aren't serving as defensive points for the team to rally at and hold their ground to effect a comeback at, but rather as gold objectives and minor obstacles. At the very least item 3124 needs a significant price increase.

However, while I do not find the patch fun, I am sure Riot will work on it. What I find more troubling is the thought process behind the pre-season changes. Riot is clearly under pressure, whether internally or externally (or both) to make LCS games shorter with more kills in order that they are 'more exciting'. I am arguing that those ideas are less important than having competitive matches with a depth of strategic room. Right now would you pick any kind of late game scaling comp? If so you are either insane or extremely confident in your team's ability to play mistake free.

Awkward CouchNov 24, 20151 votes

I think what we need to keep in mind right here is right now the live servers is now changed to a giant PBE clusterfuck. I don't know for sure that Riot is actually feeling pressure to make games shorter, maybe I'm just naive, but I've noticed that after about 2 weeks after 5.22 games have been getting longer for me. I think there are still a lot of levers for Riot to pull and yeah item 3124 is really broken right now but it's just the off season. By the time LCS starts up games will be longer and things will be closer to normal. In the second to last paragraph you talk about things that happen to you, ie DC's, but some of those are just bugs with the patch. Like I said its a just a giant PBE clusterfuck. Don't take this preseason like this is what is going to happen to the LCS. There's a reason they are doing this in the off season.

THE KILLER GUYNov 26, 20151 votes

tmdr, but I did read some and i noticed you're complaining about the latest patch and I'm really sorry that you felt like you had to spend the time to type all of this out because, truthfully, nobody cares - especially not Riot. As user Awkward Couch has said, Riot Meddler has already said that he's going to give some time before major changes come out. It's preseason, buddy. It'll balance out before the regular season begins.